Tag: reviews

  • ‘Oppenheimer’ Review: Nolan Brings His Grandiose, Propulsive Touch to the Political Drama

    ‘Oppenheimer’ Review: Nolan Brings His Grandiose, Propulsive Touch to the Political Drama

    The bomb goes off. Total silence immediately takes control. A blinding light fills the desert, Oppenheimer and the rest of his team watch in awe as the flaming mushroom cloud slowly consumes the sky. It’s an image of destructive beauty. Director Christopher Nolan cuts between scientists’ faces, and at first, we see only awe, maybe with a tinge of fear. But then we cut to Edward Teller, watching the explosion with his dark safety glasses on, as his lips turn into a slight smile. This shot of the bespectacled Teller reveling in the cataclysmic power that he was an instrumental part of creating is etched in my mind. Due in large part because it reminded me of Peter Sellers’ titular character in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. The glasses are definitely part of it, but the two characters also share this mad excitement at the might of nuclear power. In the Kubrick film, Dr. Strangelove is the American president’s scientific advisor, a former Nazi who betrays a certain excitement for the usage of nuclear weapons and particularly a doomsday nuclear device. Edward Teller himself is known as the “father of the hydrogen bomb” and received much support from the American government after the war for his plans to strengthen the American nuclear arsenal. He also was a major advocate of Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, known colloquially as the Star Wars program, a proposed missile defense system that experimented with using lasers, satellites, and particle beam weapons to protect the United States. The similarities between Teller and Strangelove were quite noticeable but I still assumed that Nolan’s inclusion of that smiling shot was probably a coincidence. But then I discovered that Teller was an influence on the character of Strangelove in the 1964 film and now Teller’s wicked smile cannot leave my brain.

    He looks so much like Dr. Strangelove. ‘Oppenheimer’ (Universal)

     

    Oppenheimer is an incredibly well-made film. The technical aspects are phenomenal as is par for the course with pretty much every Nolan film. The practical visual effects from the team lead by Andrew Jackson, Scott R. Fisher, and Giacomo Mineo will most likely be Oscar-nominated. The spectacular cinematography and production design from Hoyte van Hoytema and Ruth de Jong, respectively will also very likely receive some Oscar love. But the technical aspect that astounded me the most about the film was Ludwig Goransson’s score. Like with Tenet, Goransson worked with Nolan as the composer on Oppenheimer as Nolan’s regular collaborator Hans Zimmer was busy working on Dune: Part Two (Zimmer wasn’t able to score Tenet due to being committed to Dune: Part One). Goransson’s ‘Tenet’ score was quite possibly the best thing about that film. It’s merger of electronic and classical instrumentation was alternatingly epic with an industrial sound and lush with its ambient soundscapes. Goransson’s work on Oppenheimer drops the industrial sound of his Tenet material but retains the epic feel, once again merging classical and ambient electronic instrumentation. Fluttering string arpeggios morph into pulsating synthesizers on the standout track “Can You Hear The Music” that plays near the start of the film. Like with Nolan’s best films (excluding Memento), the soundscapes that accompany them become integrally intertwined with the film’s content and do so much to drive the emotions of his work.

    Cillian Murphy is incredible here. The film lives and dies on his performance and his portrayal of a deeply tortured, anxious man who is forced to present an image of control. He’s phenomenal and is absolutely deserving of all the attention he will likely receive in the coming months. When it comes to the supporting characters, Robert Downey Jr. is the undeniable standout as bureaucrat Lewis Strauss. He has some of the best scenes in the film, some shot in stunning black and white to indicate that it’s his perspective dictating what’s seen on screen (as opposed to the scenes in color which indicate that Oppenheimer’s perspective is being illustrated). A quick aside, the black and white moments in this film look gorgeous, the film becoming the first feature film to use black-and-white analog photography. Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, and Florence Pugh round out the main supporting cast. Unfortunately, Nolan’s problem with under developing female characters persists and while Blunt and Pugh both elevate the material they are given, their roles fall largely into common biopic tropes. Blunt is quite good as the long-suffering wife imploring her husband to fight back against the people attempting to ruin his reputation, and while she feels more “real” than Pugh’s character does, she is still woefully underwritten. Stars like Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, and Gary Oldman pop up for moments in this film, Affleck’s role as a menacing Commie-hating army officer being the most memorable of the four. 

    ‘Oppenheimer’ (Universal)

    Breakneck from the get-go, this undoubtedly is a Nolan movie, with the director’s characteristically propulsive brand of cinema grabbing you by the neck and refusing to let go until the credits run. Like with most Nolan films, the pacing and grandiose nature of the visuals and sonics distract you from paying too close attention to the dialogue. But luckily, unlike Interstellar, no lines are distractingly heavy-handed enough to take you out of the film’s immersion. This is the most political film Nolan has ever made and it’s surprisingly nuanced, something I was unsure the director could do when it came to politics. The film offers many of the prevalent perspectives on the war and the use of the atom bomb, keeping its position on the ramifications of Oppenheimer’s actions ambiguous until the knockout ending. This is one of the most grandiose-feeling films released in quite some time. It feels absolutely massive, the score, the sound, the effects, the pacing, all coming together to create a truly immersive experience. And while it’s so massive, the film is really a character study about one man. The man who became the American Prometheus. Someone so powerful, so deeply destructive with the force he worked so hard to unleash. In portraying Oppenheimer’s guilt, Nolan plays with style to force you inside the man’s tumultuous mind. Scenes like Oppenheimer’s post-Hiroshima speech end up being some of the film’s most chilling as a result of these stylizations. 

    Truly colossal in a litany of ways, Oppenheimer is Nolan’s best film since Inception and will undoubtedly end up being one of the year’s best blockbusters. Exhilarating and smarter than expected Oppenheimer both succeeds and suffers off of Nolan’s ambition, but the good definitely outweighs the bad. With Oppenheimer, Nolan can confidently silence those who doubted he could return to making box office hits after Tenet underperformed both critically and commercially. Nolan is clearly back, and I expect to see Oppenheimer rack up nominations and maybe a couple of wins come Oscar season.

    Score: 4/5

  • ‘Barbie’ Review: One of the Year’s Funniest Films Doubles as a Commentary on Feminism and Female Solidarity

    ‘Barbie’ Review: One of the Year’s Funniest Films Doubles as a Commentary on Feminism and Female Solidarity

    How did Mattel allow this? The same company that sued Aqua for the group’s iconic 90s hit “Barbie Girl” for “trademark infringement, unfair competition, and trademark dilution”, allowed their beloved IP to be validly criticized and make hilarious quips about “beaching each other off” and their lack of genitals. Clearly, they’re a lot more lenient now, especially since that very Aqua song found its way into the film as the main sample for Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice’s track “Barbie World”. But what’s even more surprising is how Mattel is portrayed in the film. From the trailers, we already had a look at Will Ferrell as the CEO of Mattel, a company headed by a board room of men in matching, well-tailored suits. While the film doesn’t portray them as the undeniably evil corporation they could have, they are not positive characters. When Barbie enters the real world, the corporation reacts by trying to put her “back in her box”. And yes, that is a loaded phrase and if you already haven’t guessed it, this film has a lot more on its mind than many viewers might have imagined. 

    The scathing reviews from men like Ben Shapiro and Ted Cruz might’ve clued you in, but Barbie is a film about feminism, female solidarity, and existential questions. And the film still managed to have me giggling in the theater throughout. While director Greta Gerwig’s control of the tone isn’t perfect, it doesn’t leave too much to be desired. Serious poignancy and one-liners often come back-to-back but it hardly ever feels muddied. This is quite an ambitious film. There is a large swathe of thematic and narrative ground covered and while certain things (the mother/daughter subplot, some monologues) might come off as either underwritten or heavy-handed, the film is still affecting and does not lose sight of its emotional core. And that core is Margot Robbie in the titular role. She delivers a knockout performance, simultaneously managing to be absolutely hilarious while also imbuing the character with more depth and nuance than I could’ve ever hoped for in a movie about Barbie. She’s the beating heart of this film and adds to her repertoire of being one of the most talented stars working in Hollywood today. Ryan Gosling is also phenomenal, any questions about whether he was a good choice to play Ken should be completely dispelled. Gosling steals nearly every scene he’s in and everything from his line delivery, to his sulky expressions, to his vocal performance on the track “I’m Just Ken” (a soundtrack highlight on an album featuring great songs from PinkPantheress, Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, and Dua Lipa) is just so so good. This is one of the funniest blockbuster comedies of the decade so far. Gerwig and co-writer Noah Baumbach (the writer-director of Marriage Story and The Squid and the Whale) deliver a script that is sometimes broad, sometimes incredibly specific (The Godfather and Stephen Malkmus jokes were too accurate, Gerwig clearly has had to deal with her fair share of film and music bros), and rollickingly hilarious throughout. But the humor doesn’t stop this film from touching on subject matter like female solidarity and feminism in a compelling and affecting way. While I expected these topics to be included, what surprised me most about the film’s more serious themes was how much it focused on existential questions about death and what it means to be human. Robbie portrays this beautifully, what was once proverbially plastic slowly becomes skin and bones, her journey into humanity is deeply captivating. 

    ‘Barbie’ (Warner Bros.)

    I would be deeply remiss if I didn’t mention the film’s phenomenal costume and production design. The candy-colored dreamland of Barbieland is breathtaking, both 6-time Oscar nominated production designer Sarah Greenwood and 2-time Oscar winning costume designer Jacqueline Durran should see Oscar nominations coming their way this year. Sets like the home of “Weird Barbie” and the journey from the Barbie world to the human world are so wonderfully imaginative and brilliantly realized. On the subject of the Oscars, I wouldn’t be surprised if Warner Bros. makes Barbie one of their biggest pushes. A critically acclaimed summer blockbuster with explicit social commentary, Barbie has what it needs to be nominated for the Academy’s biggest prize if Warner Bros. plays their cards right. They also have Dune: Part Two (Nov. 3) and The Color Purple musical adaptation (Dec. 25) on their slate this year so we will see how they end up balancing those three films in the heart of Oscar season.

    I began this article with incredulity about how Mattel let this movie happen, but interestingly the company was in fact a close collaborator in every step of the production process (there’s a fascinating New Yorker piece about this that I recommend). And while I do give Mattel credit for allowing criticisms of Barbie and her “message” to be illustrated as valid throughout the film, the corporation’s influence is definitely felt. There are times where I was left wishing for more from the film, for it to go even further and with more complexity. The film was also a lot more straight than I was expecting, Barbieland is very heterosexual and it’s never explicitly addressed, this being another aspect that was likely a product of close corporate involvement. Obviously, a lot of this is a product of my expectations and is possibly unfair as a criticism of the film but these aspects of the film were clearly felt.

    Barbie is so many things, absolutely hilarious, ridiculously entertaining, and undeniably flawed, but it unquestionably confirms Gerwig’s place as one of the most versatile and exciting young filmmakers in Hollywood today.

    Score: 3.5/5

  • Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: A Colorful and Surprisingly Poignant Installment in the ‘Shrek’ Universe

    Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: A Colorful and Surprisingly Poignant Installment in the ‘Shrek’ Universe

    By Arman Saxena

    Wow, what a gorgeous film! Having seen the trailer I expected animation that was different from the usual Dreamworks style, but I did not anticipate finding myself in awe of the energetic, colorful, and expressionistic frames that populate this film. With a character like Puss in Boots, the filmmakers could have settled for being standard animated fare: a fun, engaging story that captivates children and adults alike but is ultimately forgettable in both their minds. But the visual aspects of the film are incredibly inspired, from the color changes that occur during the fight scenes (which reminded me of 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) to the pop culture references littered (sorry, I had to) throughout the film (from Terminator 2 to Dogs Playing Poker). There was clearly a lot of love and imagination put into crafting this film and as someone who loves animation, it’s always a joy to see a film that was made with such joie de vivre.

    That’s not to say that this is a perpetually joyous film. With Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) on his last life, he has to overcome his newfound fear of death, a theme that is tackled a lot more maturely than I expected from a mainstream film marketed towards children. The existentialism that permeates throughout sections of this film makes me believe that it is not too much to call it a psychological drama. Puss has always lived with this sense of immortality as a result of his nine lives and the legend of his moniker, but once he’s on his last legs he is forced to reconcile with the mistakes he has made and what truly fulfills him. And the film does not shy away from spending time with Puss’ psyche, we see him feel fear, loss, and loneliness, all made more powerful with the stark, striking colors of the animation.

    Antonio Banderas conveys all of this beautifully. Adding intonations of vulnerability into Puss’ consistently cocksure attitude, Banderas makes this the most relatable on-screen Puss so far. The supporting voice performances are also uniformly excellent though I want to highlight Wagner Moura as the film’s main villain Wolf. Moura knows how to play menacing, his best known role to American audiences being Pablo Escobar in Narcos. But here he is playing the personification of death itself and Moura imbues his character with the kind of controlled terror that makes Wolf one of the best (and most frightening) villains in recent mainstream animation. The whole rogues’ galleries of antagonists in this film are all beautifully rendered characters. From Big Jack Horner (John Mulaney, who is having the time of his life here) to the Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and the Three Bears Crime Family (Ray Winstone, Olivia Colman, and Samson Kayo), the film does a lot thematically with its supporting cast. The film is a quick 102 minutes and it’s impressive how the filmmakers are able to flesh out so many characters in so little time (though I think Goldilocks’ motivations could have used a little bit more development). 

    Fans of the franchise will be excited to know that Kitty Softpaws (a terrific Salma Hayak) is not just a glorified cameo in this film. She’s as important to this film as she was to the last, and while their banter remains, her relationship with Puss is only more interesting this time around. The most important of this film’s new characters is Perrito (played by What We Do in the Shadows’ Harvey Guillen), a self-described therapy dog who is the film’s heart and soul. While initially somewhat annoying, Perrito becomes the film’s most endearing character, largely due to Guillen’s thoroughly sincere voice performance. He joins Puss and Kitty on their adventure, gradually affecting them in ways that provide some of the film’s most poignant and funny moments.  

    I am not saying that a lot of the film does not seem predictable or follow many of the tropes seen throughout family films, because a lot of it does. But with its wonderful visual verve, a captivating cast of well-realized characters, and seriously-explored themes that don’t muddy the film’s tone, ‘The Last Wish’ rises above those tropes to become one of the best computer-animated films of the 2020s so far.

  • Aftersun: An Understated and Deeply Human Exploration of Memory

    Aftersun: An Understated and Deeply Human Exploration of Memory

    By Arman Saxena

    The film opens with a scene filmed on a digital home video camera. One of those cheap cameras that have given me a glimpse back into a past I never experienced. My family’s Y2K party, my older cousin’s feverish dancing on her fourth birthday, my parents doing karaoke on a snowy winter day. This first scene in Aftersun reminded me of those windows into the past, generating a weird nostalgia, a combination of joy for seeing those I love happy and a sense of melancholy that these moments are far gone. And like Aftersun, these videos don’t seem like the movies, everything does not go to plan: an uncle almost runs into the camera, moments are focused on for longer than you might expect, and a cousin kicks her sister while she’s dancing. These videos are oftentimes solely just snapshots of moments in lives. The event that brings their characters together may be of note but many of the moments that fill the time are completely ordinary. Then why are they so captivating? Why have I spent hours and hours looking back at the scenes of my aunt and uncle talking about nothing in particular, my cousins singing off-key, and the silly puns my dad has been making for apparently over 20 years? I don’t really have an answer to that question but I think the things that don’t go to plan, that seem out of place, are what keep me coming back. 

    At least that is what’s compelling about Aftersun. In the first scene, a girl films a man who is presumably her father (played spectacularly by the Oscar-nominated Paul Mescal) sillily dancing in a bathroom. The girl says “That’s so embarrassing!” and as the father starts to move out of frame, she asks to interview him. “When you were eleven, what did you think you would be doing now?” His hand is on his face, he looks preoccupied, frazzled. He takes his hand off his face, looks at the girl with his hands on his hips as if saying, “I don’t want to talk about this right now”, but he stays silent. As he begins to turn away, the image freezes. There is a woman in what appears to be a club with strobe lights. She stands out, motionlessly standing on the dance floor, eyes shut. And then we cut back to the home video footage, this time from the father’s perspective as his daughter waves goodbye to him at an airport. 

    Director Charlotte Wells and her editor Blair McClendon (who rightfully won best editing for their work from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association) use the effect of fast forwarding through footage on a cheap video camera to great effect, representing the elder Sophie’s search through her memories of her father.

    These moments are what consist of the film’s first two minutes but essentially outline what the film will be: a deeply human exploration of the moments we don’t realize we want to hold on to until it’s possibly too late. The film, however, does not just focus on Sophie’s time with her father. We see the flutters of first love, the occasionally awkward time spent with pubescent teenagers, and moments of exploration and discovery. All of these are hallmarks of coming-of-age cinema but Aftersun never feels like it’s following overdone tropes. Nothing feels artificial or contrived and this is a combination of the phenomenally naturalistic performances from Paul Mescal and newcomer Frankie Corio, Wells being unafraid to let sequences and shots linger, and Wells’ writing that never feels twee yet simultaneously endears us to Sophie’s sweetness. Mescal, especially, is fantastic. As his character’s mental state slowly unravels over the course of the film, Mescal never gives everything away, the Irish actor displaying that inner conflict that every parent knows between wanting to be honest with your child and yet always making sure they feel safe and comfortable. In a single scene, Mescal can be at once distant and loving, attentive but preoccupied, dancing at one moment and in silent frustration the next. This is my favorite male performance of 2022. Corio is fantastic as well, not many young actresses could deliver “I think it’s nice we share the same sky” and have it come off completely sincere. 

    All in all, that’s what I love about this film, how sincere it feels. Wells is deeply committed to the art of “show don’t tell”, allowing McClendon’s editing to help the audience decipher the location jumps and non-linearity of the storytelling. But while the film’s progression is not obvious it is never confusing and the emotional progression of the film is deeply felt. Nothing feels manipulative and the audience is never told how to feel. Some may come out of the film wondering why they spent an hour and a half watching a father and daughter spend their vacation together but I believe the majority of viewers will take away what I took away or something near it: an inspiration to cherish the moments we have because even the most commonplace of seconds can be home to profound beauty.

    Rating: 4.5/5

  • “An American Pickle” review: A sweet but conflicted film that will likely still provide a fun escape during these crazy times.

    “An American Pickle” review: A sweet but conflicted film that will likely still provide a fun escape during these crazy times.

    Seth Rogen is mostly known for producing and starring in hilariously funny, but very rated-R comedies, this film is PG-13, and is probably the most family-friendly of any film in which Seth Rogen has held the lead role. This dramedy is still amusing though, however, its laugh count is not at the level many of his fans probably expect.

    The film follows a Jewish man, Herschel Greenbaum (Seth Rogen) who, when we first see him, is a ditch-digger living in a shtetl. At a market, Herschel sees a woman named Sarah (Sarah Snook) and is instantly in love, not in small part due to the fact that she has “all her teeth, both top and bottom”. He eventually woos her and they get married. After a Cossack attack on their village, the couple decides to move to America. They are met with anti-Semitism but stay positive throughout. One day, when Herschel is working in a pickle factory he is cornered by dozens of rats and falls into a vat of pickle brine as the factory closes. He is perfectly preserved for 100 years and we are given a non-explanation for how that is possible. While this works fine as a joke here, these little bouts of farcical situations continue throughout the film and clash with the film’s mostly sincere tone to create some bewildering and slightly frustrating moments later on.

    Once Herschel is out of the brine, he tries to find the only living relative he has left and he is met with his great-grandson, Ben Greenbaum (who is also played by Rogen), a coder working, as he has been for 5 years, on a app that finds how ethical a company is. These scenes are some of the more fun as the film does not dive deep into the clichéd, “man from past experiences modern world for first time scenes” and the film goes straight into the plot (which explains the fleeting 90-minute runtime). As they get to know each other, Herschel becomes increasingly disappointed in his great-grandson as he seems to have lost all ties to his Jewish heritage. As time goes on, the film turns these two men against each other as Herschel starts to become successful. This is one of film’s weak points as Ben’s malice towards Herschel is a little extreme and it is a significant shift from the lovable guy we see at first. During this cyclical sequence of Herschel gaining popularity, then being “canceled”, the film shows some satirical edge, but the satire is too safe and easy to be truly biting. Don’t get me wrong, it is a fine film that will maintain a smile on your face for most of the runtime, but it is not one of Rogen’s funnier efforts, which would be fine if it was not tonally conflicted to the point that it affects the dramatic moments.

    Directed by Brandon Trost and written by Simon Rich (based on his short story ”Sell Out”), the film steers clear from many of the storytelling clichés that litter these type of films and has moments of inspiration. The film works well as a vehicle to show Rogen’s dramatic chops as he skillfully creates two distinct characters in his dual role and at times, especially in later scenes, the film can be heartfelt as Ben works to reconcile with his past.

    In these times where there is a lack of new mainstream films, “An American Pickle” is welcome as it is a fun, likeable but flawed movie that is worth a watch, but will likely be forgotten after a few days of COVID-induced monotony.

    Score: 3/5

    This film can be seen on HBO MAX